BubbleStream

Chandrakant Kaluram Mhatre

One Hundred Poems of Tukaram

Synopsis

One Hundred Poems of Tukaram is a translation of selected poems of Tukaram, originally composed in Marathi. Tukaram, hailed as one of the greatest sant, Indian equivalent for a saint, belongs to the Bhakti Movement that nourished Indian psyche for close to a millennium. Like his predecessors, Tukaram, too, used poetry as a means of expression of his love for his deity Lord Vitthal. However, the range and depth of Tukaram’s poetry is such that it touches upon and lightens up every possible aspect of human life. His penetrating insights are so ably complemented by his poetic innovations that he took Indian poetry to new heights in the times when the Indian society’s morale was at its lowest. Tukaram’s poems revived this almost dead society and made it survive for centuries to come. That’s the most important contribution of Tukaram’s poetry. And therefore its relevance in today’s turbulent times!

Author Biography

Chandrakant Kaluram Mhatre is a bilingual poet from Maharashtra State of India, writing in English as well as his mother-tongue Marathi. He is a translator of Marathi literature into English and is also a keen researcher of folk culture, language and literature.

Author Insight

With the blessings of the saints

Bahinabai, Tukaram's contemporary and devoted follower, holds a unique place in Indian literature as one of the pioneers of women's autobiography in India. Her such poems throw considerable light on Tukaram's life and times. In this poem, Bahinabai gives her account of the Bhakti movement in India using the metaphor of a temple. This poems enables us to understand how his contemporaries valued Tukaram!